Indiana State Chooses SAP HANA Platform

12 August 2014 - SAP today announced that the State of Indiana has chosen the SAP HANA platform as the foundation for a management initiative, driven by Governor Mike Pence, to improve data efficiency across state government.

The project, dubbed the Management and Performance Hub (MPH), will empower state leaders and citizens alike to track the state's progress against government key performance indicators and be used to initiate targeted policy solutions for Hoosiers. The state's MPH initiative will make use of SAP HANA in combination with SAP Predictive Analysis and SAP Lumira software.

As part of the state's efforts to build on its foundation of strong financial and performance management, Governor Pence tasked his Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Indiana Office of Technology to develop a comprehensive enterprise-wide data-driven management system. The MPH project will create a "citizen-centric" IT architecture that places government's constituents at the center of all interactions, as is increasingly the case in the private sector. The MPH project is seen as an opportunity to improve service and drive efficiency, and also as a chance to use advanced data analytics to address some of the state's most stubbornly complex governing challenges.

Currently, some state data reporting is done on a monthly basis and in some cases is not automated, requiring human staff to aid in tabulation. When the MPH project goes live, all those processes will be automated, minimizing ad hoc reporting and manual entry. State leaders and residents will be able to track government performance in near-real time, using SAP HANA. Agency heads and executive management will be able to combine and cross-check vast volumes of information to glean insights that were previously too complex to obtain.

Foremost among Indiana's complex public administration challenges is its infant mortality rate. While Indiana enjoys a strong fiscal position and has bounced back well from the recession by growing private sector jobs, it has persistently experienced an infant mortality rate above the U.S. average. The state plans to use insights from the MPH project to understand and address the multifaceted causes of infant mortality as they are specifically playing out for Indiana residents and communities.

"Governor Pence is a firm believer in data-driven decision making, and has challenged us to pull all agency resources and data to examine this problem in ways no government entity has ever done," said Chris Atkins, OMB Director and CFO, State of Indiana. "We knew that sorting through multiple agencies' data, and parsing more than 50 data sets would require unique and powerful solutions. When examining our processing options, SAP products kept coming to the top of the list. Its hardware and software has played an essential role in launching MPH."

SAP HANA, with in-memory database, data processing and application platform capabilities, essentially eliminates data redundancy and latency. This makes it an ideal platform for quickly combining and analyzing the data in complex public administration challenges like infant mortality, which can be affected by diverse factors ranging from environmental pollutants to maternal health to crime. The combination of SAP HANA, analytics solutions from SAP and SAP Lumira with SAP Mobile Platform is enabling state and local leaders to closely manage their communities in partnership with citizens.

Partnering with Mobile Citizens
In Rock Hill, South Carolina, a city of nearly 70,000 located just south of Charlotte, NC, city leaders and engaged residents are also using SAP solutions to track government performance. Rock Hill, with the help of implementation partner CIPHER Business Solutions, has deployed the CitizenInsight mobile app, which combines analytics solutions from SAP, the SAP Strategy Management application and SAP solutions for enterprise performance management. Strategic planning and performance measurement play an important role in guiding budget discussions and directing employee work programs. The app, which can be downloaded from the iTunes app store by anyone, provides scorecards across city departments including public safety and public works. Using these, citizens and city leaders can explore the city's performance against multiple measurements, encouraging citizen engagement and real-time accountability.

By continuously tracking performance, elected officials and staff are able to make informed decisions about future projects, based on data and experience. This commitment leads to a variety of successes, including tourism, redevelopment and jobs, as well as quality of life initiatives. In fact, Rock Hill was named on the "100 Best Communities for Young People" ranking five times by the America's Promise Alliance.

"Citizens deserve to be given options to interact with their city government in a way that's convenient and reliable," said David Vehaun, City Manager, Rock Hill. "The performance dashboard offers interested citizens a user-friendly way to stay informed and connected. CitizenInsight plays a valuable role in communicating our goals, successes and challenges in a clear, meaningful way."

CitizenInsight is also being used by leaders and citizens in the City of Boston, having been designed collaboratively by the City and SAP.

About SAP
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